When an aircraft or another type of machine is damaged, maintenance crews are tasked with inspecting and repairing the damage. For example, the fuselage of an aircraft may be dented or damaged by heat. When this occurs, the maintenance crew typically measures the size, shape, and location of the damaged region. The crew then determines if a repair is needed, and helps design a repair process. Conventionally, the measurements are taken by hand with a tape measure or ruler. Newer techniques allow the maintenance crew to measure the damaged region using non-destructive inspection techniques. After the analysis, a maintenance crew performs whatever repair is deemed appropriate for the damage.
However, after the damaged region is repaired, the exact location of the damage may not be evident in the future. The repair may be covered by paint or otherwise concealed so that the location of the prior repair is not visible. This may hinder the maintenance crew in correctly analyzing what types of future repairs are needed on the aircraft. For example, if a section of the aircraft's wing was previously repaired and new damage occurs proximate to the location of the previous repair, then a maintenance crew may utilize different repair processes if they were aware of the previous repair. However, the precise location of the previous repair may not be documented in a way that allows the maintenance crew to determine if the present damage is in the same location as the previous repair.